244 pages : 23 cm

In The Trouble with Christmas Tom Flynn challenges America's most popular sacred cow. Alternately outrageous, satirical, and thoughtful, this rollicking critique calls Christmas to account. How many holiday traditions are authentically Christian? (Next to none.). Does the contemporary Christmas holiday have ancient roots? (Hardly. It was largely invented by six eminent Victorians.). Is the Santa Claus myth unhealthy for children? (Yes, Virginia.). Are Christmas critics

Discriminated against? (Is "Scrooge" an insult?). What is the future of Christmas as America becomes a multicultural, multifaith society? (Educators should start sweating now.). The Trouble with Christmas is not only for curmudgeons, but for citizens, parents, teachers, and freethinkers of every stripe. Anyone curious about the origins and future of one of the Western world's most celebrated holidays will find something of interest in this provocative book

Includes bibliographical references

Preface: Humbug Indeed! -- pt. 1. The Trouble with Christmas Past and Present. 1. A Feast of Trouble. 2. Confessions of an Anti-Claus. 3. The Age Before Christmas. 4. Trick or Tree. 5. The Babe and the Bathwater. 6. A Nick in Time. 7. Christians versus Christmas. 8. Back From the Dead. 9. He Knows When You Are Sleeping. 10. Ho Ho Ho? No No No! -- pt. 2. The Trouble with Christmas Present and Yet to Come -- Introduction: Trouble Ahead. 11. Christmas and the Old Outsiders: The Jews. 12. Christmas and the Old Outsiders: The Infidels. 13. Christmas and the New Outsiders. 14. Confrontation in the Classroom. 15. A Word to Infidels -- Epilogue: Don't Worry, Be Merry!

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